Taipei

I am in Taipei. Here is what happened since I took the plane in HK.

The flight to Taiwan happened happend quite normaly. However, when we entered the airport in Taiwan, the first thing that I saw was a board telling something like: « The use of Drugs in Taiwan can be punished by Death » And next to the board, there was a police officer with a dog smellig all of our luggages. Hopefully, the dog didn’t find any suspect baggages. Taiwan isn’t recognized by the UN as a country and is constantly ready for a conflict with China. This may explain the presence of soldiers at the Tao Yuan Airport and the odd atmosphere at the customs.

Actually, I had a bit of fright at these customs, when I arrived to the immigration service. The police officer apparently had find something he didn’t like in my passport. He called his superior, and 10 minutes later, he let me go.

Next, after changing my Euros against New Taiwan Dollars, it was time to take a bus to taipei. During this one hour transport, I had the opportunity for the first time to get an inside view of an Asian territory. The first minutes I took looking around me were quite a shock. I had imagined Taiwan as a very technological country, where there were new and impressive buidings. The only thing I was witnessing was a landscape made of pieces of ricefields here, and almost abandonned houses there, whereas the road was protected by barbed wire. I even saw a broken bridge (I hope this wasn’t due to last week’s earthquake in Taiwan).

As I moved from the rural place to the suburbs of Taipei, the landscape was changing. Now there were very high and large old brown buildings. This architecture reminded me of the HLMs in France. Everything looked dirty. I asked a guy in the bus to know if everything was so messy everywhere in Taiwan and he said that it was classical. I think my studies in Germany brought to me the need of order, lol. And he added, « But you’ll see that Hong Kong is better ». I finally got off the Bus and found my hotel quite easily. The hotel is situated in the center and touristic area of Taipei. Taipei’s center is really great ! There is a lot going on in the street, the people are friendly and speak english.

I guess it can be said that, for many big cities in the world, once you are in the touristic area of the city, everything looks good and welcoming, but when you move to the places which a tourist isn’t supposed to visit, you have another view of the country.

The weather is very humid, about 20 degrees, and rainy, caracteristic of the subtropical climate of Northern Taiwan.

It is now time to visit my living area of the week and eat before a long long sleep.